May 2023's Goal: 5 Minutes of Yoga or Stretching Every Day

Alright, here we are: the very first of my monthly health goals.  This month I decided to do 5 minutes of yoga or another form of stretching every day.

I had a fairly difficult time narrowing things down to one goal.  As I mentioned a few days ago, I am stressed, I'm tired, my fat percentage has gone up, my muscle percentage has gone down, and my weight is the highest it has been since 2020.  I also hurt my knee and wrist a few months ago, have that old back injury, have to watch my cholesterol, and have had some vertigo, which has all made me very hesitant to do much so I don't aggravate those injuries.  So with all of that going on, it was a little difficult to decide on what to focus on.  I have a bad habit of trying to do too much, which ends up making me feel overwhelmed.  

So with all of that going on, I thought that yoga and stretching are going to be my best bet to start.  Yoga will hopefully help me bring my stress level down, and the stretching will help me get back into being active without stressing the areas of my body that have been hurt.

I've also read some books on forming habits, which generally say that getting yourself to do something new is very difficult; in order to get yourself to start, you need to set the bar so incredibly low so it's hard to talk yourself out of it.  I was originally thinking of setting the goal for 10 minutes of yoga, but decided to go even lower than that because everyone can find five minutes in their day for stretching, right?  I can even do a minute here and there throughout the day so that they add up to 5 minutes if I need to.

As always, successfully completing this goal will mean that I achieve it 80% of the time.  So in the month of May, I will need to do 5 minutes of yoga or stretching on 25 of the 31 days of the month.

Weight Update for Apr 29

I've heard you're not supposed to be weighing yourself every day, but I have been over the last few days just to get a better sense of what's happening.  I didn't write the exact number down, but yesterday I was over 221lbs, which is not good (according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's BMI calculator, 221 puts my BMI up to 31.7).  So here are today's proper numbers:

weight: 220.4 lbs
fat percentage: 52.0%
hydration: 33.0%
muscle: 23.6%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2380

And a weight of 220.4lbs puts my BMI to 31.6.

I'm glad to see that compared to April 27th, the fat percentage is very slightly down and the muscle percentage is very slightly up.  But these numbers are all unacceptable.   

While I'm not happy about this, I do now have a starting point for getting my health back on track. I'm not going to weigh myself now until next weekend.

Seven Weight Updates

 I meant to come back and post on here sooner, but the month got away from me due to some health issues that a member of my family had.  They are thankfully doing a lot better now.  So I'm trying to get caught up with things, and I'm starting with my weight updates for the last while!

Mar 11

weight: 218.4 lbs
fat percentage: 48.6%
hydration: 35.3%
muscle: 25.3%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2369

Mar 13

weight: 215.8 lbs
fat percentage: 48.1%
hydration: 35.6%
muscle: 25.5%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2354

Mar 27

weight: 215.8 lbs
fat percentage: 48.5%
hydration: 35.4%
muscle: 25.3%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2354

Apr 3

weight: 219.6 lbs
fat percentage: 49.9%
hydration: 34.4%
muscle: 24.6%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2375

Apr 4

weight: 217.4 lbs
fat percentage: 51.5%
hydration: 33.3%
muscle: 23.8%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2363

Apr 11

weight: 217.4 lbs
fat percentage: 51.5%
hydration: 33.3%
muscle: 23.8%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2363

and Apr 27

weight: 219.8 lbs
fat percentage: 52.5%
hydration: 32.6%
muscle: 23.3%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2377

These numbers are unacceptable.  My fat percentage has been going up and my muscle percentage has been going down. My weight is also the highest its been since 2020.  On top of that, I am tired and stressed all the time now (which is admittedly in part because it has been a terrible year so far).  I need to turn this all around for my physical and mental health.

Last time I posted, I mentioned the idea of a seasonal or monthly goal. I've thought about it a lot, and I really like the idea of trying a monthly goal so I can focus on an aspect of my health, and hopefully build off of my successes and failures in order to slowly but steadily create a healthier life. I will continue to count a success rate of 80% or better as succeeding at each month's goals for now.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned, this has been both a terrible year, and a particularly terrible month, so I will take a day or two to decide what I want to focus on improving for May.